[Dixielandjazz] Instruments and vibrato

[David Richoux]

Just like any other military item - band instruments were produced to  
specification, regulations and quantities (many of those procurement  
specs for military band instruments were written by a certain  
Representative C. G.Conn from Indiana - he was in Congress well  
before the Spanish American War and exclusive contracts with the Conn  
company lasted to WW1 and beyond.) I have owned several Conn horns  
marked USQMC (United States Quartermaster Corps) from WW1 Army bands.

As I mentioned in a previous message, I don't think the surplus  
instruments from the early years of the Civil War would have survived  
30-40 years to to be used much in New Orleans in the 1900s, but there  
was likely to be a flood of better quality instruments available  
after the Spanish American War of 1898. There was a strong Army and  
Navy Supply establishment in New Orleans at the time and the way  
things are surplused out of the services has not changed much in 150  
years. Some local agent could have purchased large numbers of horns  
and dumped them on the 2nd hand markets of the city.

It would be interesting to look closely at Louis Armstrong's "First  
Horn" to see if there was a military marking on the bell!

However, if we ignore all of that completely and just look at the  
history of ALL brass bands in the US from 1865 to 1900 it become  
obvious that there were many thousands of instruments produced in the  
USA (and Europe) that would be all over the place - finding cheap 2nd  
or 3rd hand instruments in a city the size of New Orleans would be no  
problem.

Certainly easier than it would be now that Werlein's has moved out to  
Metairie...;-)

Dave Richoux

On Sep 23, 2007, at 3:08 PM, Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis  
wrote:

>
>
> My only disagreement with all of this is the number of instruments  
> from military bands that were supposed to have flooded the market  
> after several wars.  I have no idea of the history of pawn shops  
> but just how many could New Orleans have had and how did all those  
> musicians just happen to show up in New Orleans just to hock their  
> horn.  Now some have pointed out that New Orleans was a main port  
> during the Spanish American war but so were several others.  Why  
> didn't we see a growth of Jazz or something else from those  
> cities?  I also don't accept that the U.S. government just let them  
> take their instruments when mustered out.  Could have happened but  
> the government didn't let them take their horse, gun, cannon or  
> ship so expensive musical instruments in any number, I don't think  
> so.  Also during the Spanish American war there just weren't lots  
> military of bands.
>